Did very well on my predictions. Only missed Sound Editing, Actor, Foreign Film and Doc Short. Predicted 20/24 and the only one I was way off on were the latter two since I didn't have the eventual winner as my alternate. Here's all the wins

38 comments:

Jordan
said...

Don't want it to be over. :(I tied with my dad for the first time in our oscar pool...but he won the tiebreaker (how many times will the camera cut to jack laughing/smiling? he actually found out there was a lakers game and decided jack would be watching) so I lose again. oh well. Anne Hathway was amazing singing!

I really wish the Oscars meant something in Australia. Down here they air with a time delay so nobody really cares when they're on because they know the winners and they're on a Monday so that doesn't help and... yeah, not many care to watch them. I so wish I could have an Oscar party, but it just doesn't happen in Australia. I watched them live from 12.30PM. Didn't feel too special, but I loved them anyway.

Thanks for selecting me as comment du jour, Nat. Was that selection made before or after MY FAITH IN SEAN WAS VINDICATED? So glad I stuck with him. His win gave me a tie for 1st place in my oscar pool, where everyone was taunting me all night about Rourke/Penn, claiming that one would be my undoing. Suck it, haters!

I should've gone with more of my last-minute hunches, though, like Slumdog for everything but sound editing, Departures for foreign, Duchess for costumes... I felt the moment the noms were announced that Duchess would win, but I backtracked later, thinking Button needed a 4th award somewhere. How silly of me.

I'm pissed that WALL•E only won the ghetto category. I can bullshit on that. I thought it had sound editing for sure (the robot noises!!!). Original screenplay was always a pipe dream, though. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

But I'm very happy that Sean won, and for the Milklove in general. Mickey got a lot this season. Globe + BAFTA + Spirit is not a bad haul. Penn's BFCA + SAG + Oscar means things were pretty evenly divvied up in the end.

Either Sean or Rourke would have been deserving. I did think it was a nice touch that Sean singled Rourke out to honor his work.

A great make-over of the oscars, and what would have been a very predictable evening. The acting presentations were especially moving. Loved Marion's introduction of Kate, and by gosh Nicole is stunning.

I'm with Bubba here about the Acting category individual introductions. I thought they were really special and well thought-out - what a great touch.

Anyway, this year marks the first time ever I actually got up to watch the Oscars live - well, the second half of the show, anyway. 5:30am was a lot more manageable than 4am. Like in Aus here in South Africa most people only watch the Monday evening delayed broadcast.

Yipee yip! Won the pool, only missed Sound Mixing, Animated Short, Foreign Language and Documentary Short.And I hated the show much less than in recent years. In fact, I was delighted by a great deal of it, especially the presentation of the acting awards.

See, I wasn't a huge fan of the past acting winners presenting thing. It just felt so awkward to me. Like how they carefully went out of their way to cherry pick the most diverse lineup possible (while implying that all the other past winners were not as worthy somehow).

And why those particular pairings of past winners with current nominees? It rarely made any sense. Like, why didn't they get Anthony Hopkins to talk to Langella about playing Nixon, since he HAD played him, and was there in the Circle of Five anyway? Rather than have someone else say how Langella does the best Nixon EVER while Hopkins is standing right there.

I just thought it was weird to have some random actor spout crazy over-the-top praise to another random actor in front of the whole world... unless they were close personal friends or had some other particular connection.

And there was SO much gushing. I felt embarrassed for them. Talk about being put on the spot. I guess it was poignant and all, but for me, it too often tipped over into needlessly maudlin and cloying.

Plus, it just underscored how all these awards are really just passes into this special exclusive club. But props for honestly, I guess.

PLUS, it took like an hour per category, and they didn't even show clips. NO. CLIPS. Made no sense. Clips are just as good, and take a fraction of the time. Seriously.

I guess for a one-year detour, it was fine, but it's not really sustainable. I hope they go back to the old model next year.

Well, tbh, there's probably only ten or so past winners who would/could come to the show. I don't know if they'll be able to do it next year, really. I still liked it in the end. It felt special and different and unlike any other award show.

I liked the idea of the acting presentations very much, if not all the individual ones. (I think the presenters really might've came up with them themselves, because the tributes often felt so uneven.) I do however, share the sadness on "no clips" thing. ALL categories had clips EXCEPT acting? Boo.

I loved it when Kaminski appeared and was expecting to see some other non-actors presenting later on, but alas. (Spielberg doesn't count.) That would be such a cool tradition to start.

The opening number made me smile. I think Billy Crystal's are unbeatable in terms of writing, but Hugh's energy was contagious, and SO glad they did mention TDK and Wrestler as well as the nominees. The best part was, of course, Jackman/Hathaway. And I was sort of agnostic on her before, but I think I've just fallen in love!

Speaking of which -- "Don't fall in love with me." :D Martin + Fey = funny! Honestly, he is the most underappreciated Oscar host in the last decade - and she will host one in the near future, I hope!

So all in all, very nice. Although the musical tribute felt randomly tacked on to a interestingly constructed ceremony -- and to tie it to Mamma Mia was the cringeworthiest.

As for the results: I felt no emotional investment in frigtheningly many of the categories, so I was hoping for SOME surprises just to keep things interesting. Bugger. Oh well, at least there were great things in speeches, top five being:

I disagree Adam-I LOVED the whole welcome-to-the-club aspect of the acting nominee presentations. It was so homey, so lovely. I also thought they paired it up, at least to a certain extent. Hopkins had starred with Pitt in two different films, and Douglas has played an onscreen president as well, albeit a fictional one.

Plus, it was great to see past winners up there, and even with the odd pairings, it was fun to see them talk about the work that the actors had done, and find perhaps an odd fanship (my favorite was Shirley MacLaine talking about a clearly deeply moved Anne Hathaway-and who wouldn't be? Any young actor or actress worth their salt would have Shirley MacLaine on their "acting heroes" list).

Rob, that was one thing that caught my eye as well, how comfortable some of the youngsters were (is Biel still considered one?) and others not (looking at that High School Musical dude). Loved the acting presentation, though I agree that some of them were a little lame (Richard Jenkins deserved better), but it's not like the previous concept produced always pure gold. And look, the triangle in one room together after all, and they genuinely smiled at each other. Can their fans now do the same, please?I've already said it, LOVED Hugh Jackman. What an entertainer. Yay, Kate! A bit sorry for Mickey, no matter how many awards he got for this role, he lost the big one. Meryl, your third one will come soon. Just keep the good performances coming.

I want to know what the Hell was with the tribute section? Did someone decide we would rather see Queen Latifah than the screen telling us who passed away? Why did we need awkward pans and zooms rather than just a straight shot of the clips from these much-missed actors and filmmakers? I couldn't see so many of them that it seemed kinda...no, very disrespectful.

one of my problems with the show....as i think about it. The closeness of everyone. it felt small and intimate. The academy awards should be big & grande. It felt very kum-buyh-ya...sitting by the campfire close and small. I didn't like the "in memorium" either - it was hard to see the clips. Overall - with the excepting of the MILK writer and Kate - the whole show was very unemotional.

Wasn't it wonderfully amusing that the preview of upcoming 2009 films at the end of the show were so utterly stuffed with exactly the kinds of movies they'd spent the last 3 hours failing to acknowledge?

I disagree that the show was not emotional. I think the small intimate feel actually really helped with that. And all the acting winners (plus DLB) gave very heartfelt speeches.

I didn't hate the acting presentations, I just had a lot of issues with them, and they'd been getting such unanimous praise that I felt the need to put a dissenting voice out there. My main beef is that theyr managed to make the presentations massively longer while also chucking the clips. No clips = not okay.

I LOVED Kate Winslet's dad whistling, though. So adorable. She was like a little girl when that happened (and I miss the younger, more impulsive Kate).

Oscars came and went yet again. did okay in my predictions 15 correct v. 9 incorrect. (i hate those short film categories), the one that was a bit of a shock was I predicted Mickey Rourke to win Best Actor but Sean Penn took home his second. Penn's awesome so I ain't hatin', loved how he called America out on the fact that their grandchildren will feel shame on how they handled marriage equality. the new method of handing out the acting statues was so refreshing, cool to see some legends together onstage. Penelope Cruz's shout-out to Almodovar (VOLVER!) was a high point, he is becoming a new favorite of mine. The Dark Knight snubs in the Visual Effects, Cinematography and Sound Mixing categories are especially eyebrow-raising, I don't understand the thought process sometimes. After 14 years of being a fan it was so awesome seeing Kate Winslet get her goldenboy and secure her place in history; her speech was one of two times I welled up a little. The Slumdog Millionaire love was a bit much after awhile, but hey you gotta love the acceptance of more culturally diverse films. Heath Ledger's win felt a bit anti-climactic. Hugh Jackman was aces as HOST and I loves me some good song/dance numbers. Favorite speech of the Night: Dustin Lance Black for Original Screenplay - Milk, his speech brought real tears to my eyes (especially the last four or so lines) and i'm thankful for his words:

"Slumdog Millionaire" rocked it! Congratulations on its 8 Oscar wins! Those kids were ADORABLE! Love the wins for Penelope Cruz, Heath Ledger, Dustin Lance Black (brilliant speech), Danny Boyle, Sean Penn, and "WALL-E". It's too bad that Kate Winslet won for such an awful role in an awful film, but that's life. The tributes of the past winners to the new winner was inspired. They can't pull that every year, and it would have made more sense to do in an anniversary year, but still. I got chills over the lead actress and supporting actress lineups there. Halle! Nicole! Marion! Shirley! Whoopi! Tilda! Sophia! Angelica! EVA MARIE SAINT!?!?!? (Sorry Goldie, but you just don't match up to the rest of this bunch). I was choked up over Anne Hathaway's reaction to Shirley MacLaine's speech. <3 Sad that Mickey's comeback arc couldn't be completed with a win, but the writing should have been on the wall with "Milk"s 8 nominations and their loyal love for the biopic. No acting clips was a huge miss. That would have gone a long way to sell these obscure films to an audience that's getting a first look at a lot of these films and performances. I know I loved the tributes, but I could easily see it being perceived as a self-congratulatory wanking exercise to those that are just hearing words with no visuals backing it all up.

Hugh was a solid host. Better than I thought he'd be, but the show let him down with bloated musical numbers (shame on you, Baz, for the Disney-pandering, time-wasting spectacle -- the musical is probably dead now BTW, thx), and the lengthy stretches of him not being around as host. It felt like Will Smith and Sarah Jessica Parker had more screentime than he did. Steve Martin and Tina Fey are gods. James Franco looking at himself in "Milk" as his "Pineapple Express" character was meta-inspired genius. The original song presentation was a bust, and that's sad considering that the Bollywood theme was something that the Academy needed to see done well. No Peter Gabriel was sad, and John Legend wasn't a suitable replacement for him. MIA not being there was sad too, but I guess that can slide considering her circumstances. The original score nominees being played was great, and they should do that every year. I also liked how the orchestra was on stage, and how that brought the audience closer to the stage for a more intimate feel.

Bill Condon's footprints were all over this with his "Dreamgirls" crew -- Beyonce, Eddie Murphy (how in the world did he convince Eddie to present to Jerry Lewis? Bribery? A starring role in his next film? LOL.), and Fatima Robinson. I was almost expecting J-Hud somewhere in there presenting something too. The stage was beautiful though. The yearbook montages were fabulous, and the way that they interspersed the current best picture nominees with past winners was beautiful. Surprise of the night -- Japan for Foreign Language Film? That was a big goose-egg for all of us.

Interesting re-working of things. It wasn't entirely successful (the sound glitches, the original song number, clapping over Queen Latifah's song in the death montage, no M.I.A., etc.), and it was sad that there couldn't have been a Javier/Penelope moment (or Daniel Day-Lewis not being there too). But it was no disaster, and for a bunch of first-timers trying new things and telling a "story" of sorts, it worked out well-enough and was nice to see unfold the way it did.

One thing I'm finding is that people are putting some of the blame of the "terrible show" (as some are calling it) down to the predictability of it. Don't blame the Academy for that. There's nothing they can do there.

The In memoriam bit was so strange. Could barely make out who certain names were (Cyd Charisse especially at the very start).

Kate's dad's whistle was indeed cute.

also, Mickey wasn't robbed. To be "robbed" you need to lose to someone completely undeserving. Not sure how anyone could say that about Penn.